The lifted ban is part of the $1.4 trillion government pandemic stimulus package for 2021 and reflects a long push for prison reform which encourages rehabilitation and lowered incarceration rates.
Institution: U.S. Congress
Record number of women of color running for U.S. Congress in 2020
At least 266 Black, Latinx, Asian, Native American, Middle Eastern and North African women are running for the House and Senate, shattering 2018’s numbers.
Congress approves billions for U.S. national parks
The Great American Outdoors Act allocates $9.5bn over the next five years for previously neglected park repairs. And it sets up $900m a year to acquire land for conservation and continue maintenance.
Senate passes veto-proof bill that removes Confederate names from Army bases
President Donald Trump has threatened to veto a version that renames the military bases, but that looks less likely after the Senate passed its version 86 to 14, well above the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto.
U.S. Congress reaches historic $2 trillion stimulus deal amid pandemic
The package includes $250b aside for individuals and families, $350b in small business loans, $250b in unemployment insurance benefits, and $500b in loans for distressed companies.
The U.S. Senate passes decade’s biggest public lands package, protecting 1.3 million acres of wilderness
The measure protects 1.3 million acres as wilderness, the nation’s most stringent protection. It permanently withdraws more than 370,000 acres of land from mining around two national parks.
2018 Congressional Farm Bill effectively legalizes hemp in the U.S.
Promoters have long extolled the virtue of the grassy weed as one of the cheapest and most important crops for solving the world’s problems around sustainability and healthwith it’s alleged ability to treat numerous symptoms and diseases.
The United States convenes the most diverse Congress in its history
There are more women than ever before, and a new generation of Muslims, Latinos, Native Americans and African-Americans in the House creating what academics call a reflective democracy, more aligned with the population of the United States.
New Mexico Democrat Debra Haaland and Kansas Democrat Sharice Davids become the first Native American women elected to U.S. Congress
Sharice Davids and Deb Haaland made history on Tuesday by becoming the first Native American women elected to Congress.
Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota become the first Muslim women elected to U.S. Congress
Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota became the first Muslim women elected to Congress.